


The Last Song

by summerartist



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bittersweet, Eleven is a bit unkind at first but he helps, F/M, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Regeneration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 18:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20980727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerartist/pseuds/summerartist
Summary: Amy, Rory, and the Eleventh Doctor get a surprise visit from the Doctor’s recent past.(blatant hugs for Ten)





	1. Chapter 1

Rory was breathing heavily in his sleep, sniffling more than usual. Amy sighed and opened her eyes to look around their bedroom. The light filtered through the faux window towards the right, ghostly light emitting from it like the reflection from the moon. She rolled her shoulders and blinked. There was something that seemed off, like she had forgotten to tell someone something. Rory was making an awful lot of noise.

Amy sat up to glance over at her husband. He was sound asleep, chest gently rising and falling. A spark of wrongness hit her and then she realized that there was someone else in the room. She got out of bed, scanning the room intently.

A stifled groan drew her forward. At last she saw it, a vaguely humanoid shaped figure on the floor of their bedroom. He was wearing a long brown coat and on his head he had a mop of mousy hair. Amy approached, watching as the man rolled over to reveal an unfamiliar face. He was pale, had high cheekbones, and a gangly body that hardly fit into the corner of the room where he lay.

He was clearly in distress. His limbs jerked as if yanked around by an invisible puppeteer. Amy swallowed and knelt down beside him.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

He looked at her with squinting and unfocused eyes. “Is that- Donna?”

He frowned at her and seemed to be about to speak again before his gaze was drawn down to his right hand. He clenched and unclenched his fist.

“It’s going to be all right,” Amy assured him, hand hovering tentatively over his shoulder, “I’m going to get some help.” She glanced back at Rory who was still sound asleep. “Wait right here.”

She crept up to the bed and shook her husband’s shoulder. He stirred muzzily, not quite waking. “Rory. Rory, you have a patient. Wake up,” she told him firmly.

“What?”

It took a couple of minutes to get her husband up and moving. He walked over to the man that was crammed into the corner of their bedroom as he blinked the sleep from his eyes.

He stopped a couple of feet away. “Amy, why is there a man in our bedroom?”

“I don’t know,” Amy frowned at the newcomer. There was something vaguely familiar about him, a sort of vulnerability that she had seen before. She shook her head. “Do you think you can help him?”

“Hang on. Sir, can you hear me? Are you hurt anywhere?” Rory knelt by the figure’s side and visually assessed him. “I’m going to take your pulse, all right?”

The newcomer nodded and he let Rory touch the side of his neck and hold his wrist. Amy watched as Rory stiffened and then repeated his actions. He asked permission to touch the man’s chest and proceeded to feel both the left and right side.

“Amy, I think he’s a Time Lord.” His tone was infused with awe.

“How is that possible?” Amy asked quietly.

The stranger was about to speak when the doors to their bedroom flew open. Everyone in the room either tensed or jumped.

The Doctor stuck his head in. “Oh, it’s possible all right. Amy, Rory, I would like you to meet myself.” His gaze was firmly settled on the figure on the floor. He gave a small smile. “It’s good you turned up.”


	2. Chapter 2

(Warning for detailed conversations about regeneration and Eleven deliberately picking a fight for his predecessor’s sake.)

“You? What do you mean you?” Rory asked as the Doctor approached.

“I mean me, a version before my regeneration. Which if I’m not mistaken, is occurring right now.” The Doctor crouched down and eyed the newcomer.

“Where am I? Is this the Tardis?” The fellow asked as he straightened up more. “Who are you?”

He paused to stifle a sound and clutch at his midriff. The current Doctor put a steadying hand on his arm.

“Yes, this is the Tardis and yes, I am you. These are my companions, Amy and Rory. Now, why did the Tardis send you? You’re only an hour away from complete regeneration, give or take. Why would she risk sending you here?” The Doctor placed a hand on the newcomer’s temple and shut his eyes. “Oh, that’s not good.”

The Doctor stood and backed away from his predecessor. He swallowed and watched him with wide eyes.

“Doctor, what is it?” Amy asked.

The Doctor picked at his cuff link as he fidgeted and eyed his predecessor warily. “If you regenerate now, you’ll destroy the Tardis and everything within a 100 mile radius. Is there a chance you can stop it?”

When the man looked utterly baffled and started spluttering, the Doctor corrected himself. “Of course not, stupid stupid. Well, we can’t siphon off all that energy and neither can the Tardis. I’d regenerate and blow her to bits.”

“Doctor!” Amy exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Come on, Sand Shoes, let’s get you on your feet.” As the Doctor moved to help him up, his predecessor blinked at him.

“Sand shoes?” A faint spark of recognition was kindled in his gaze before it was snuffed out. “They’re not sand shoes. And what is this about the Tardis exploding? If you’re me then you know that it wasn’t destroyed.”

The Doctor hummed in confirmation and helped him to his feet with Rory assisting on the other side. Together, they ended up practically carrying the regenerating man to the control room. His arms quivered but he was seemed to be soothed by their contact. Amy followed them, grabbing the spare blankets and a pillow.

They settled the man in pinstripes on the floor while the Doctor looked him over and scanned him with his sonic screwdriver. The man tracked the green sonic back and forth as it moved.

“That’s new,” he commented.

“Do you like it? It has a bit that opens out the end, see? Well, the good news is that you’re regenerating like you should, organs and molecules being replaced at a gradual rate. Or speedily, should you prefer to look at it that way. What I don’t understand is how you could be generating so much energy so chaotically.” The Doctor frowned at him. “You should be adapting to the regeneration, not fighting it. It’s a perfectly natural process. Was it the radiation you absorbed?”

“No,” the man in pinstripes turned away from him.

The Doctor frowned at his former self as if he were trying to work out a particularly difficult puzzle. Amy and Rory were already wrapping up the shuddering man in a blanket.

“Your previous regeneration was a bit rocky, but why are you having trouble with this one? And why does the Tardis think I’ll be able to fix you?”

“I don’t know why. I was busy...collecting my reward when I ended up here before reaching my final destination,” Sand Shoes snapped.

The Doctor huffed at him. “It’s not like you to be irritated. You were seeing your companions, yes?”

His predecessor slowly nodded.

“Well then, you should be happy. Saying goodbye to those you’re closest to, giving them goodbye kisses and all those good things.” The Doctor’s brow was furrowed as he surveyed his former self. “When I touched your mind earlier you were in pain.”

The pinstriped man was frowning again, unwilling to face the other’s suspicions.

“Is that why your regeneration’s going all wonky? Because you’re upset?” The Doctor sighed at his former self. He had always done things the hard way, especially in that form. “You’ll have a great life as me. You’ll have companions again. See, there’s Amy and Rory, the best companions you could ever have.”

“I’m not upset,” Sand Shoes objected. “I’m sure that the world gets along just fine.”

“All evidence to the contrary, the ‘you not being upset’ part,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Doctor,” Rory protested. “Just let him be for now.” The nurse was keeping a steady presence at the former Doctor’s side. He had that oddly defensive hunch over the pinstriped man as if he was protecting the Doctor from himself. The Doctor blinked.

“Right. I’ll just step over here then.” The Doctor exhaled and let Rory and Amy look after the more emotional version of himself.

They spoke softly to him for a while, rubbing his back and trying to comfort him. Sand Shoes seemed to soak up the attention like a life force, relaxing briefly despite the darkness lurking in his eyes. The Doctor made a snap decision and rejoined the party.

“No, this is ridiculous. You aren’t dying, you’re regenerating.”

Both of the Ponds glared at him, but the Doctor remained firm. The pinstriped man lurched unsteadily to his feet.

“I’m as good as dying,” the predecessor pointed out. “I’m sorry if that’s inconvenient for you.”

Though he was gritting his teeth with the pain of the gradual reformation, he remained standing. The surge of affection for his former self did not stall the Doctor and he plowed on.

“As a matter of fact, it is. You left me with a reforming Tardis that crash landed on the very planet that you’re trying to protect,” the Doctor raised his voice and was gratified when his predecessor did the same.

“Oh, I see. It’s nothing to you if I regenerated in the Tardis because I had nowhere else to go. No, just caused a hiccup in your merry little life of hopping around the universe,” the former Doctor ranted. “It doesn’t matter to you, saying goodbye to Martha, Donna, Wilf, Rose, Sara Jane, and Jack. No, might as well...” The former Doctor was breathing heavily.

“Doctor,” Rory’s voice was very firm.

“No, Rory. We’re getting to the root of the problem. Not nicely, I’m afraid, but I could never do nice to myself,” the Doctor said as he stepped closer to the former Doctor. “Tell me. Tell me what’s troubling you, right now, at this very moment. What’s upsetting you more than any of that?”

Sand Shoes gave a wet sounding laugh as Amy rubbed his arm. “So that’s it? I’m just a means to an end.”

“Doctor, I didn’t change so much that I’m unrecognizable, hmm? Look at me. Properly look this time.” The Doctor cupped the seething man’s cheek and made certain that they were making eye contact. He mentally brushed his mind against the regenerating Gallifreyan’s, not intruding, but showing.

The two Doctors came to a standstill and the former Doctor eventually had to break away. He was still frowning, but the look on his face was as if he was seeing the other man properly for the first time. The words he spoke made everything go silent.

“I’m afraid to be alone at the end,” the former Doctor admitted.

The look the other Doctor gave him was achingly vulnerable. He very carefully placed his left hand over his predecessor’s right arm and drew him forward. He held on tightly.

“You’re not alone. Not really. Though it feels like you’re by yourself, I don’t think the Earth will ever know a time when it wasn’t thinking about you.” He held the back of his head, fingers threaded through the spiky hair. “You know, I always felt like I had to live up to you. There’s never been a me that’s been braver. You felt things so passionately, so vividly. I was a bit envious.”

His predecessor scoffed at him.

“A lot envious,” the Doctor corrected himself. “Don’t laugh.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” His predecessor gave a breathy huff and seemed to hold him closer.

The Doctor took advantage of the distraction and moved a steady hand to his back. “You’re going to feel a slight pinch.”

As the Ponds watched, golden feathery light traveled up through the Doctor’s arm. The Doctor moved his other hand away so that he could place it on the Tardis console. The light threaded through them and settled into their skin and the Tardis controls.

“Ponds, we’re doing hugging now. You’d best come over here and hug,” the Doctor invited them.

Amy took a tentative step forward. “Won’t that interfere?” She eyed the golden stream of light that was swirling over them in spirals and waves.

“Not a bit. Come on. You too, Rory. The more of us, the better.” The Doctor ushered his companions forward until they were huddled in a group hug.

The swirls of energy drifted over them, feeling like warm gentle ocean waves. The humans found themselves smiling a bit at the sensation as they clung on. The extra energy was siphoned off through their connection.

“Thank you,” the former Doctor said softly.

The Doctor held him tightly, as if he could take the fear of regeneration onto himself. The former Doctor rested his head against the other’s, broadcasting the reassurance that he would be all right.

“You had better be,” the Doctor said softly and sincerely. “You have one more stop to make, after all.”

They pulled away from each other and the former Doctor’s pained gaze had dimmed slightly. “You know who I have to see last. I’ll tell her she’ll have a great year.”

“The best,” the Doctor told him. “The paradox is overridden by the regenerative energy, so you’ll be remembering us and parts of this, for better or for worse. You take care now, out there.”

“And you, Doctor.” The former Doctor separated from them all and took a few steps backward. “It’s nice to meet you, Amy, Rory. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

The former Doctor was enveloped in light until he vanished from the spot. The Tardis had transported him back to his timeline. The Doctor remained standing where he was, eyeing the spot where his former self had just vanished. Despite his smile, a few tears had slipped down his cheek. He hastily wiped them away and turned to face his Ponds.

The End.


End file.
